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IslesInfo Comments: The Islanders spotted Atlanta a 1-0 lead tonight when Vyacheslav Kozlov tipped in a powerplay point shot by Andy Sutton after Isles defenseman Eric Cairns was whistled off for crosschecking at 2:44. The goal was Kozlov's 7th of the season, a rare powerplay goal allowed by the Islanders. But the onslaught would begin for the Islanders at 10:11 when none other but Cairns would redeem himself by scoring his first goal of the season. Skating into the slot, Cairns received a behind the net pass from Oleg Kvasha and slapped it in behind Atlanta goaltender Byron Dafoe to tie the game 1-1. The point was Cairns' first since December 13th. Even more notable was that the goal was Eric's first in 45 games, the last one coming last April in the game the Islanders clinched a playoff birth with a win over Washington. The Islanders would soon get their own powerplay opportunity and for all the criticism assistant coach Kelly Miller has gotten this season for the way he has run the Islanders 24th ranked powerplay, tonight he made a good decision. The coaching staff placed Jason Blake on the powerplay, who before tonight had only scored one powerplay goal in his entire NHL career, during the 2000-01 season. At 14:08, Blake would notch his 12th of the season putting the Islanders ahead 2-1 on the extra man. Adrian Aucoin would shoot the puck in only to hit Blake in the leg. As the puck fell to the ice, Blake quickly smacked it through the pads of Dafoe. Blake would go on to score his second goal of the game, once again on the powerplay at the 19:00 mark to put the Isles up 3-1. Aucoin shot the puck in on Dafoe again, this time with Alexei Yashin in front of the net. Yashin reached for it, but it was Blake who pounced on the loose puck and fired it into the top portion of the net for his 13th with Dafoe sprawled out on his back. The line of Blake-Scatchard-Wiemer had many chances to score even in the early going of the period as well. The Islanders out shot Atlanta in the first period 19-10. - The Islanders went on the powerplay once again early in the second, but were a bit over aggressive as they allowed about three 2 on 1's in the two minute span. Blake got on the ice late in the powerplay, so he wasn't able to capitalize once again. But at 10:13 he and captain Michael Peca were able to team up for another pretty goal, one that would give Blake his first ever career NHL hat trick, a natural hat trick at that. Blake, using his blazing speed, carried the puck into the Thrashers zone before dropping it off to Peca. Faking the shot, Peca quickly sent it back to Blake who was still in pursuit towards the net. As he got there, Blake was able to tap the puck into a wide open net since Dafoe played the shot by Peca all the way. The goal was Blake's 14th of the season and would eventually be the game winner. As Blake celebrated his goal with Peca, fans threw out their hats along with the giveaway of the night, New York Islander boxer shorts. Yes, boxer shorts were flying out onto the ice like mini kites. No sombrero's tonight. Though there was a king's crown. Go figure. There were some more oddities going on in the Coliseum tonight as the scoreboard clock kept malfunctioning and the game was halted for over 5 minutes late in the second due to a cracked pane of glass. When the play resumed, the Isles gained a 5-1 lead when Jason Wiemer would get his 6th of the season, unassisted at 17:25. There should have been an assist to Blake, even though he did not touch the puck. He applied intense pressure down low of an Atlanta defenseman going back to retrieve a dump in. The d-man gave up the puck right onto Wiemer's stick, who skated in all alone and backhanded the puck through Dafoe's legs. - With the Islanders firmly holding the lead, Atlanta would get on the board for just the second time in the game making it 5-2 when Marc Savard would steal a Chris Osgood clearing play around the glass. Savard wound up and found a hole through Osgood for only his 4th goal of the season. But the Islanders were still looking for more goals, even after Kvasha got called off for hooking. At 4:22 the Isles would go up 6-2 on their 8th shorthanded goal of the season. Blake once again entered the Atlanta zone and perhaps this time fooled new Thrasher goaltender Passi Nurminen into thinking the hot goal scorer was going to shoot. But Blake dropped it back and Kenny Jonsson quickly whipped it on net for his 6th of the season. Both teams traded goals back and forth in the third. Atlanta made it 6-3 at 10:49 off the second goal of the game by Kozlov, his 8th, when he cut into the slot and got a shot off. But the Islanders, soundly onto their 19th win of the season with under a minute to go would get one more to finish it at 7-3. Trent Hunter chipped the puck up to center ice where Claude Lapointe broke in on a 2 on 1 with Kvasha. Oleg cocked his stick back for the pass and Lapointe relayed it over for the easy slam past Nurminen. The goal gave Kvasha two more points in the game and it was his 3rd goal of the season. The Islanders improve with the win to 19-17-5-1, 44 points. They are 2-0-0 this season against Atlanta. Blake recorded his second 4 point game of the season.
More stats: The Islanders are 7-1-0-1 in their last 9 games. Chris Osgood won his 16th game of the season and is now 6 games over .500. He is currently riding a 9 game undefeated streak at 7-0-2. The season series against Atlanta stands at 2-0-0 for the Isles. The Islanders won the first game 5-4 back on October 19th in Atlanta....The Islanders have scored 21 goals in their last 4 home games, including a game in which they were shutout 4-0 by Philadelphia....The Islanders have 3 hat tricks in the last 5 games(Parrish vs. Boston, Scatchard vs. Pittsburgh and Blake vs. Atlanta). The Islander record for fastest three hat tricks is 2 games. Mike Bossy and Denis Potvin did it in the same game back in 1982, with Bossy doing it again in a consecutive game....It is the most hat tricks by the Islanders in a one month span since December of 1993. Next Up: It's good that the Islanders are scoring goals right now, even though they are mostly coming at home. Their next opponent is doing just the same and the Isles have historically struggled against them. Yes, i'm talking about the Washington Capitals. The Islanders travel to Washington for a Monday night game. While the Islanders were handling the Thrashers 7-3, Washington was pounding Florida on home ice by a whopping 12-2 score. Don't be surprised now if the game is a low scoring one. Though both the Islanders and Caps have plenty of offensive talent and are two very hot teams right now. Washington has gone 12 straight games with gaining at least a point. The Islanders are 0-2-0 this season against Washington, both games at the Coliseum. They lost the home opener 2-1 on October 12th, and lost 3-1 December 21st in a game that rookie Rick DiPietro stopped Michael Nylander on a penalty shot. The Islanders have never won at the new MCI Center. This game will be the first of 4 straight on the road for the Isles. They head to New Jersey Wednesday, St. Louis Thursday and Atlanta Sunday afternoon. They return home for a January 21st battle against the crosstown rival NY Rangers. The Standings: The Islanders moved back into the 8th and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 44 points. The Canadiens lost 3-2 at home against Buffalo, allowing the Isles to jump over them. Tampa Bay is now only 2 points ahead of the Isles for 7th place after skating to a 3-3 tie with New Jersey. The Islanders remain 5 points behind Toronto and Boston who both have 49 points and are in 6th and 5th place respectively. Boston defeated Toronto at home last night 6-2. As far as the teams beneath the Islanders, Pittsburgh(42 points) remained in 10th place after losing Saturday afternoon to the Rangers 3-1. With the win, the Rangers move into 11th with 41 points. Florida dropped to 13th with the 12-2 loss to Washington, while Carolina dropped to 12th as they were the only Eastern Conference team not to play Saturday. They will host Colorado Sunday evening. Washington is in third place in the conference, just 3 points ahead of the Islanders, first place in the Southeast division. TV Stuff: Howie Rose was sick last night
with the flu and could not call the game for Fox. So the Islanders had
John Wiedemann, the radio play by play man move into the TV booth. He was
pretty good. You gotta love how he calls the game on the radio. Plenty of
excitement in his calls. Though we all know the radio guys have to be more
descriptive in their calls and right from the start you could tell
Wiedemann might have some trouble with that. That is why you have to
appreciate Howie, even if you dislike him becuase of his Ranger days. He
is a natural on the TV side and should still be considered next season if
there is any truth that this could be his final season behind the Islander
mics. Then again, if Wiedemann was being given a tryout, he didn't do all
that bad. By the way Kris King, normally the color commentator on the
radio moved into the play by play duties for the night. The Islanders got
Jean Potvin to fill in with the color commentary. Potvin did some color
commentary for the Isles back during the cup years. If Howie does not make
the trip to Washington, you could see the same thing happen Monday night. Fight Card: none. Commentary: Nice bounce back from the Philly game. Now we have to get back to beating the good teams like we did against Boston by giving a good solid effort in Washington. I like what i'm seeing from all four lines, except Yashin's line. He and Weinhandl should be clicking more. At first they were but as of late their chemistry has been a bit nonexistent. Perhaps Yashin really does need to be moved to left wing and another center(Radek Bonk maybe?) man the center position. But you had to really enjoy the win and besides the Flyer game, the last 5 or so home games have been just awesome. All the hat tricks, and the goaltending has just been superb. Jason Blake last night was just spectacular to watch. After the hat trick he was a bit unselfish because he could have had 5 or 6 last night easy. I never thought i'd see the day when Blake would dominate a game, let alone become a scoring threat in the NHL.
Report Card: Brad Isbister: Sat out third straight game with sore ankle. Perhaps the more bigger bad news for Izzy is the Isles are proving they don't need him to win. Which is what has brought on the recent rumors, heavy rumors, that he is going to be sent to Boston in exchange for D Kyle McLaren. Stay tuned on that one! Alexei Yashin: 7 goals last night and all he had was an assist? You really have to start worrying about this. I'm sure Mike Milbury is watching this very closely and considering doing something to shake Yashin out of his funk. He was even in plus/minus, which means he still is a -19. He did have 6 shots, tied for second most on the team. They are just not going in for him. Also, a lot of his shots have been from odd angles. Shawn Bates: Assisted on Jason Blake's first PP goal. Is getting better with each game back and more ice time as well. Mark Parrish: Didn't have a point last night, and the goals have not come as fast and furious in the last couple games, but before you expect it he will come right back with two or three. Dave Scatchard: Had some chances to score but couldn't finish. Did not have a point even though he played on Blake's line. But two of Blake's goals came on the powerplay though without Scatchard. While Scatch did have 6 shots on goal, how do you end up a -2 in this game??? Other than that, Scatch was very good. ;) Jason Wiemer: Gave a nice effort to score the Isles 5th goal of the game, unassisted. Jason Blake: Didn't just score a hat trick, but a natural hat trick! What can you say about this performance. Absolutely unbelievable. All-star game, here Blakey comes! Claude Lapointe: Played well on the fourth line. Had maybe one or two shifts with Yashin but as usual there was no connection. Lapointe did notch an assist with a nice pass to Oleg Kvasha in the final minute of the game to get the Isles 7th goal. Was a +3 on the night. Steve Webb: Sat out his seventh game with chronic back spasms. Isles could use him back in the lineup. But as I said previously, a crop of other forwards have filled in nicely for him on the fourth line. Arron Asham: Had a pretty quiet game and was a -1. But he was noticeable at times with physical play. Oleg Kvasha: Another very good game for Kvasha last night as he set up the first goal with a fantastic pass to Eric Cairns, and then scored the final goal of the game. Kvasha may just climb out of this yet and come on in the second half just like last year. As both he and Isbister teeter totter back and forth on who's in and who's out, it may actually be Kvasha who sticks around. Michael Peca: What a fantastic pass he laid right on Blake's stick from the hat trick. Peca totally faked out Dafoe to believe he was taking shot all the way. It may take a while for Peca to totally regain his offensive form. On some nights he's on, and stretches he's not. But the defense is always there. Peca's assist was his 50th all-time as an Islander. Mattias Weinhandl: As Yashin stays quiet, so does Weinhandl. But the young forward is always involved and has made the Islanders PK that much better. He should be commended for that. You don't see Yashin on the PK. Eric Godard: Scratched as the coaching staff re-inserted Trent Hunter into the lineup. Atlanta does not have as much toughness as Philly and coach Laviolette commented that he hated taking Hunter out after he played so well against Pittsburgh. Trent Hunter: Played well on the fourth line and got some time with some of the other skilled players as well up front. He had a good backhand shot on Dafoe in the first period but it ended up being an easy save. He did notch an assist in the last minute of the gave as he helped set up Claude Lapointe and Oleg Kvasha to break out on a two on one which resulted in a Kvasha goal. He's playing much better than his early season call ups, and with much more confidence. Perhaps he is also just gelling better with his linemates. Defense: Roman Hamrlik: Recorded his 20th assist of the season on Blake's hat trick goal. That is second most on the team to Yashin's 26. Didn't have a shot on goal last night. Adrian Aucoin: Assisted on both of Blake's PP goals with nice hard blasts from the point. Eric Cairns: Finally got his first goal of the season, first goal in 45 regular season games. He said he was glad because he took a dumb penalty early in the game which resulted in Atlanta taking a 1-0 lead. Kenny Jonsson: Very good on the PK and scored a SH goal to show for it. The goal was his 6th which ties Aucoin for the team lead among d-men. Hamrlik has 5. Jonsson's goal was the 50th of his Islander career and his 2nd shorthanded goal as an Islander. Radek Martinek: Now he is reliable as any. A big difference from the start of the season. Mattias Timander: Never flashy, but solid and provides the defensive depth the Islanders need, which allows Jonsson, Hamrlik and Aucoin to go offensive at times. Goal: Chris Osgood: Riding a 9 game unbeaten streak at 7-0-2. Will be interesting watching him face Washington Monday night. Even though he's played well, the Islanders have admittedly noticed that they have been allowing to many goals as of late, but their own offense has masked it. Allowing three goals is not bad as long as you win. But they would still like to tighten up a little. Osgood won his 16th game of the season and is now 6 games over .500. Ozzie is now 3 wins shy of 7th all-time on the Islanders wins list by a goaltender. He has 48 wins in 98 career games as an Islander. Mark Fitzpatrick had 51 wins in 129 games with the Islanders.
Coaches Good move getting Hunter back in the lineup. Better move putting Jason Blake up on the PP. What took them so long?? Special Teams The Isles 24th ranked PP went 2-4 thanks to both of Blake's tallies. The PK went 5-6 which is not bad at all. The PK is ranked 10th.
Lineups: ISLANDERS DEFENSEMEN GOALTENDERS ATLANTA THRASHERS DEFENSEMEN GOALTENDERS
Power-play Conversions:
ATL - 1 of 6, NYI - 2 of 4.
IslesInfo Pregame Preview Preview 2 Points for the Taking? Jan 11: The Isles hope to get back to their winning ways tonight when they finish their three game home-stand against the Atlanta Thrashers. Many of the Isles eastern foes have been feasting on Atlanta, now it is the Isles turn. But they can't take them lightly. Isles vs. Thrashers Preview: New York saw its five-game home winning streak come to an end on Thursday with a 4-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. The loss was the Islanders' second in their last three contests overall following a season-high five-game winning streak. "They played a great game,'' Islanders goalie Garth Snow said. "They sat back, played tight defense and cashed in on our mistakes.'' Islanders captain Michael Peca said those mistakes were errors of omission. "I can't even talk about winning one-on-one battles, because we weren't even engaging in them for two periods,'' he said. The Islanders have won three straight home games against the Thrashers, outscoring them 15-4. The Isles are 6-1-0-1 in their last 8 and 2-1-0-1 in the month of January. The Islanders won the first meeting between these two teams back on October 19th in Atlanta, 5-4. Claude Lapointe scored the game winning goal. Chris Osgood is 5-0 against Atlanta all-time. He's currently riding an 8 game unbeaten streak at 6-0-2. The Islanders have split their 3 game homestand and look to end it on a strong note before leaving for 4 straight on the road. They visit Washington on Monday, the Devils on Wednesday, St. Louis on Thursday and Atlanta next Saturday. The Islanders will wear their orange third jersey's tonight. "Imminent" Trade?: Yesterday it was circulating around the internet that the Islanders were apparently close to dealing injured Brad Isbister and a draft pick to Boston in exchange for holdout D Kyle McLaren. Much of the rumor generated from an article by Alan Hahn in Friday's Newsday that the Islanders were close to finalizing a deal last week. Whether there is any truth to this or Alan was just trying to heat things up remains to be seen. But there were a lot of web sources sticking their necks out once again proclaiming the trade was practically a done deal. It was reported though by TSN that the Islanders were the leading team in the McLaren talks, but they were basically reporting what Hahn had written in his column. What's at Stake?: The Islanders enter today in 9th place in the east with 42 points. Every team in the conference is in action tonight except for Carolina. Pittsburgh, tied in points with the Isles but in 10th place because of one less win, hosts the Rangers (39 points) this afternoon. The Canadiens, just ahead of the Isles in 8th place with 43 points, host the struggling Buffalo Sabres who won their last game against Boston. Tampa Bay, in 7th with 45 points, will host New Jersey who defeated Florida last night 2-1. That kept Florida in 12th with 41 points. The 6th place Bruins (47 points) host 5th place Toronto (49 points). Washington is in third place in the conference with 45 points, leading the Southeast Division. They host the Panthers tonight. So with a win and a Montreal loss, the Islanders can reclaim 8th place.
Atlanta on a Roll Reports have it today that Atlanta is very close to signing Bob Hartley as their new head coach. This would be a good move for a young team looking for some guidance and leadership. Ilya Kvalchuk has Pavel Bure like hands and should be kept an eye on.
Notes: The Atlanta Thrashers look to go unbeaten in three straight games for the first time in two months when they visit the New York Islanders. Atlanta tied the Carolina Hurricanes 3-3 on Monday and then opened a three-game road trip with a 3-2 win in overtime over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday. The Thrashers haven't gone undefeated in three straight since a three-game winning streak from Nov. 9-13. Ilya Kovalchuk scored his second goal of the game with 15.2 seconds left in overtime on Thursday to give Atlanta just its fourth win in 18 games (4-10-1-3). "Everybody feels good,'' said Kovalchuk, who has a team-high 24 goals. "Especially I feel good. I scored goals and we won the game. That's all we needed.'' Atlanta goalie Byron Dafoe made 30 saves, including a stop on a breakaway in the overtime, to snap a personal eight-game winless streak. "It's been a long time coming,'' Dafoe said. "There's nothing better than getting Ws, so tonight was extra special.'' Curt Fraser was fired from his coaching duties with the team last month and GM Don Waddell has been serving as interim head coach. Since then Atlanta is 3-4-1. Atlanta has just four wins in their last 18 games, 4-10-1-3.
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Lets Go Isles! |
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1998-2003 Tom Mascioli
